Tonights dinner wasn’t something I’d normally make when trying to eat more healthily, but I am participating in a forum monthly challenge and this months recipe certainly made Anthony smile. In fact, anything with sausages makes Anthony happy. The recipe is taken from Jamie’s Dinners – I halved everything to make dinner for two but even they were extremely generous portions.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• Olive Oil
• 2 knobs butter
• 4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks (Mr Oliver uses 1kg/2lb 3oz boned and skinned chicken legs, cut into pieces)
• 2 medium leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced into 1cm pieces
• 2 carrots peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 sticks of celery finely sliced
• A small handful of thyme, leaves picked
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 wineglass of white wine
• ½ pint milk
• s&p
• 225g good pork sausages
• 1 x 500g pack of all butter puff pastry
• 1 egg

Method

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees/ Gas mark 7

1. Take a large casserole pot and add a lug of olive oil and your butter.
2. Add the chicken, leeks carrots, celery and thyme and cook slowly on the hob for 15 minutes
3. Turn the heat up & add the flour – keep stirring for a couple of minutes before adding the wine, a wineglass of water and the milk
4. Season with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper, then cover with a lid and simmer very slowly on the hob for 30-40 minutes until the chicken is tender. Stir it every so often so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan. The sauce should be loose but quite thick. If it’s a little too liquid, just continue to simmer it with the lid off until it thickens slightly. (At this point you can let it cool and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days if you want to – it can also be eaten as a stew.)
5. Pour the chicken mixture into an appropriately sized pie dish.
6. Squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins, roll it into little balls, brown them in a little oil and sprinkle them over the stew.
7. Roll out your pastry to about 0.5 cm thick. Egg wash the rim of the dish and drape over the pastry, using a knife to trim the edge of the dish. Egg wash the top of the pastry to make it go golden whilst cooking, then pinch it to crimp around the edges.
8. I use the back of a knife to lightly criss cross the top – this allows the pastry to go crisp and flaky.
9. Cook the pie in the centre of the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes until golden on top

Mr Oliver likes to serve with sweetcorn and mashed potato.  But I had forgotten that we had already used the potatoes in the fish pie so ended up having the pie with chips! It was enjoyable but I think I do prefer the creamy chicken & tarragon pie…

For mains I cooked something that was on my To Do list – Spicy Chicken with Aubergine and Naans:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
• 1/2 lime, juice only
• salt and pepper
• 2 chicken breasts, boned, skinned, halved horizontally and flattened slightly
• 1 small aubergine, sliced horizontally into eight
• Natural low fat yoghurt (we used a small pot)
• 1in piece cucumber, diced
• 1/2 tsp mint, chopped
• 4 mini naan breads (or 2 normal sized)
• fresh coriander
• lime wedges to garnish

Method

1. To make the marinade, combine the oil, cumin, ground coriander, ginger, chopped coriander, lime juice, salt and pepper.
2. Pour the marinade over the chicken and chill for 15 minutes (though I left for about an hour)
3. Brush the aubergine with oil, season and grill on both sides until golden.
4. Grill the chicken for about 12 minutes until golden. Slice into pieces.
5. Make the dressing by mixing the yoghurt, cucumber, mint and seasoning.
6. Warm the naan and layer the aubergine, chicken pieces and yoghurt dressing on top.
7. Garnish with coriander and lime wedges (if you remember before you eat!!)

It really was very tasty and something we’ll have again.

Puy Lentil Salad

• 4/6 tomatoes halved (drizzle with oil)
• 100g puy lentils
• 1/2 lemon juice
• 1/2 garlic clove
• 1/2 small red onion, sliced
• handful of coriander

1. Heat oven to 180°c & roast tomatoes (I put the chicken in for 15 mins first, then added the tomatoes for another 15/20 mins)
2. Cook puy lentils in a pan of cold water for 20 minutes
3. Mix lentils with lemon juice, garlic, onion & 2 tablespoons of olive oil (*).

Serve & eat.

(*) not necessarily required as I forgot this!

The paste (though it needed more chillies)

• 1 tsp each cumin & coriander seeds
• 5 Thai chillies (I used normal green ones, but only 2 – next time use 5!)
• 2 shallots (roughly chopped)
• 2 garlic cloves (roughly chopped)
• 4cm ginger, grated
• 2 lemongrass stalks, chopped
• Finely grated zest 1 lime
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp palm sugar (I used golden brown normal sugar as we couldn’t find any)
• splash vegetable oil

Dry fry the spices & then grind with pestle and mortar. Put in blender & add the other ingredients.

And the veg

• 400ml can coconut milk
• 3 courgettes, thickly slicedd
• 250g shelled broad beans
• 250g asparagus
• 10 fresh basil leaves

1. Warm some oil in a pan & add 40g paste and cook for 2 minutes.
2. Add coconut milk & simmer for 5 minutes
3. Toss courgette in oil & griddle for 2 minutes each side
4. Add courgette to the curry & simmer for 6 minutes
5. Add the asparagus & broad beans and cook for 3-4 minutes
6. Stir in the basil

Our dinner…